Cape Town (South Africa) Family Holiday

After a long ride back to Cape Town from our adventure tour, we checked in to our hotel in Green Point (upgraded to a loft!) and planned to meet up with family (The Sutermasters) the next day.  They all came out to meet up with Staci who was taking a break from her job in Kenya.


Day 1: Family Surprise, V&A Waterfront, Tabletop Mountain

The next morning, we woke up and walked across town to Sea Point to surprise Staci!  Apparently the secret was almost blown multiple times, but when she saw us standing at the door you could tell she did not expect extra guests to show up to visit in South Africa.  We then went down to the V&A Waterfront for breakfast and to make plans for the rest of the day.  Top priority for the Sutermasters was to get their clothes/shoes dried from the downpour they had been in the previous day (not easy to find a place to do that on Christmas eve)! 

That afternoon we decided our first stop would be a trip to the top of Tabletop Mountain to view the city.  The line was longer than expected and there were warnings over the load speaker of much colder and windy weather conditions at the top, but we didn’t let that stop us. The views of the city and coastline were amazing, but the wind and temperature difference was unbelievable as well.  Our group found a great rock to huddle on and uncork a few bottles of local wine as we soaked in the scenery and tried to hide from the wind.  After a couple hours we got in a long line, unprotected from the wind, for the cable car ride back down.  We made some new friends during the two hour wait and at times thought we weren’t all going to make it (so cold)!  Due to the high winds, there was limited space on the cable cars. There was a family with a child and stroller just behind us but there was not enough room for all to get on together.  In the excitement Jolene may have shouted out “Leave the Baby!” which I’m sure will be a story told for many years to come on trips to Pittsburgh with family.

Day 2: Family Christmas, Lion’s Head Mountain Hike, Harbour House Dinner on the waterfront



For Christmas, my siblings and I helped coordinate the donation of more than 15 animals for those in need on behalf of the family and symbolized the gift with small stuffed animals. After opening some gifts and fun stocking presents together,  Staci “the Springbok”,  Jolene, Bryan and I headed off to hike Lion’s Head Mountain.  Lion's Head has been referenced as one of the easiest hikes in the area but I can tell you that with the hot temperatures, climbing of rocks, and at times having to hang onto chains to pull yourself up, that this hike was no joke.  The view at the top was worth it though.

That evening Uncle Jay took the group out for Christmas dinner on the waterfront for seafood and local beverages.  We even stopped at a pub on our way home for a nightcap.  Fortunately, the younger half of the group saved us from ourselves and ended the party before it got too late.

 

Day 3: South Africa Wine Tour of Paarl, Stellenbosch, and Franschhoek followed by dinner at Mama Africa

Wine and cheese... then wine and cheese

Ranking her wine and biltong (Ostrich, Kudu, Pinotage)

One of the key things that has put South Africa on the map are its wines.  We took a private tour out to some of the farms/wineries north of town (Fairview, Marianne, Boschendal, Murati).  Our group while attempting to enjoy the wines, scenery, and history, was not willing to miss any potential stops.  I’m not sure if it was the petting of the goats at Fairview or the extensive pairing of biltong (Kudu, Ostrich, and Beef jerky) with wine at Marianne’s, but we were running way behind schedule.  We did attempt to make up some time at a lovely hotel/restaurant in Franschhoek but to no avail.  This then led to the first official speed tasting at Boschendal since the group would not let the chance of going to Murati’s for dessert wine to end the day slip away.

Once back in town, the group hit Long Street and ate at the end of the “snake bar” in Mama Africa’s.  We all ordered local dishes with a couple getting the “game platter” dish that even included warthog kebobs!

Day 4: Chapman’s Peak Drive, Cape of Good Hope, Penguins at Boulder’s Beach, and Steenberg/Groot Constantia Farms (wineries)

As if the first couple days weren’t enough, we once again woke up very early and headed south of the city to enjoy beautiful views of the coast, see the local African Penguin colony, and of course taste more wine.  For the record Jolene only drank “bubbly” and even bought her own bottle to drink instead of the wine tasting offered at Groot Constantia.






Day 5: Aquila Private Game Reserve Safari

One of our goals in South Africa was to make sure we got to see a lot of the wildlife and plant life.  We couldn’t pass up a chance to do just one more safari but with the family this time.  I know many will argue that Aquila doesn’t count as a true safari with the separation of predators from the other animals but I will tell you I think they are doing a great job taking care of the animals they have and participating in animal preservation activities in the region as well.

Day 6: District 6, Township tour with Nandi of Imizamo Yethu, V&A Waterfront, and Cape Malay/African Dinner (before 1am flight back to The States!)

After multiple days with family touring outside of the city, we definitely wanted to get back to the history, culture, and reality of Cape Town.  We were shown around the District 6 Museum by Noor who had lived there during Apartheid until his family was thrown out as part of segregation.  Definitely a very tough story to hear firsthand from someone who lived it and the process of healing/reparation is still in progress.

In the afternoon we headed to the township of Imizamo Yethu “Our Struggle” and were shown around by a local resident named Nandi who was a friend of our cousin.  Townships are essentially underdeveloped urban living areas, most of were reserved for Indians and Africans during apartheid.  They still exist today and are a pretty sobering example showing how long it will take to try to repair the damage done.  Nandi had met Staci when she came to teach in the township during previous summers.  Nandi is working on a couple things, but one that she is passionate about is running tours of her township to show the strength of the people there and to share the reality of where they are today and where they’d like to head.  It was a very well done tour.

In a stark contrast to the beginning of our day, we wrapped up our South Africa trip with dinner and live entertainment at the Cape Malay / African restaurant Gold.  The Sutermasters joined us and it was a great way to wrap up the trip before our 1am flight and wish the rest of them good luck and a Happy New Year as they planned to extend their trip into 2017.

Groot reis!  Tot volgende keer.

South Africa (Southern/Eastern Cape) 5-Day Garden Route Adventure Tour: Addo National Park, Jeffreys Bay, Wilderness National Park and Oudtshoorn



We flew through Amsterdam from Chicago to get to Cape Town.  Jolene definitely made the second leg of the trip a little more interesting with some motion sickness.  We had to switch her to the aisle and she stood for parts of the second flight.  We landed late in Cape Town and had no issue taking a cab to our Protea hotel in Sea Point.

South African Flag Art

After landing we caught a handful of hours of sleep and started the trip with an immediate 5-day adventure tour along the Southern to Eastern cape of South Africa just past Port Elizabeth.  Our guide/driver was a local named Isaac and we traveled with a younger group from around the world (Australia, Switzerland, Hungary, France, UK).  They definitely helped make this part of the trip very memorable as we did nearly everything together as a group.

Day 1 : CAPE TOWN – WILDERNESS NATIONAL PARK – SEDGEFIELD

A long drive started the trip as we drove along the Southern coast and got to know our traveling group.  When we finally got out, we canoed for a couple hours in Wilderness National Park.  As we have learned multiple times in the past, Jolene is a lot better at this than me and trying to keep in sync was not our specialty.  This didn’t stop Mike from trying to race a German couple back to the docks.  We were definitely very impressed with how green and hilly the park was.

We spent the evening close by at a great guest house that evening on a hill that can only be compared to the tree house in Swiss Family Robinson.  Our guide actually bottomed out the van trying to drop us off half way up the steep hill we were staying on (we agreed the next day we’d meet him at the bottom).  We had an amazing view overlooking the coast and were surrounded by trees and branches.  We walked down the hill and ate outside at the Blue Olive where we had local seafood, ostrich carpaccio, and kudu strips while finishing the evening sipping local beverages on the decks of the hotel.

Day 2 : SEDGEFIELD – KNYSNA – TSITSIKAMMA – JEFFREYS BAY

The next morning, we started with bungee jumping (bucket list) off of Bloukrans Bridge. I definitely was partially tricked into signing up by the Swiss girls who tried to back out last minute (don’t worry, they jumped).  Jolene decided to come and walk out onto the bridge to cheer us on- but she still found a way to hurt her finger and cry a little after realizing I had survived my jump.

Next we walked along forest trails in Tsitsikamma National Park with lunch on the water’s edge with the waves breaking along the rocks.  To finish out the day we went zip-lining back and forth across the river gorge.  Another one of Jolene’s surprise skills is if you put her in a harness she loses all fear.  She did have one long run that was through a tight pass were a branch tried to grab her but she refused to brake and powered through.

That evening we checked into the Supertubes (surfing wave term!) guest house in Jeffrey’s Bay (self-proclaimed calamari, shell collecting, and surf capital of the world).  That evening we headed over to the Island Vibe backpacker hostel that other members of our group were staying to eat/drink/and hang out.  We even ran into a couple fellow Pittsburghers who were playing beer pong with our group.

Day 3 : JEFFREYS BAY – ADDO ELEPHANT NATIONAL PARK – JBAY

One of the main goals of the trip was to see some of the wildlife of Africa.  We got picked up at 3am (the Aussies partied too hard the previous night and luckily were able to get a ride with another group a little later in the morning) to head over to Addo Elephant National Park (third largest national park in South Africa) to be there for sunrise and do a 2+ hour guided game drive with our guide Ryan.  We also got a chance to search for animals on our way out the back edge of the park that afternoon with Isaac.

We saw a ton of animals:  Easily 100 elephants, zebras, springboks, warthogs, water buffalo, blacked back jackals, and more. Watching the jackals try to quickly devour as much of a water buffalo carcass that had been killed late the previous evening by a pair of male lions was pretty unreal.  They were all the way inside the animal and were taking advantage of the short window of time they had as something else must have scared off the lions.  We also had a couple instances where our vehicle was completely surrounded by elephants.  At least one elephant toddler came up on us and flapped out his ears as big as he could to try to appear as intimidating as possible!

We were due for a calm afternoon/evening, so we walked the beach (found three golden retrievers) and did a night of gouda, crackers, and Pinotage outside on the patio listening to the waves.

Day 4 : JEFFREYS BAY – CANGO CAVES – OUDTSHOORN

Started the day at the Cango Wildlife Ranch where they are working to preserve nearly 60 of the world’s most endangered animals.  We then toured a working ostrich farm in Oudtshoorn, which was the place to be during the ostrich feather boom.  Jolene got to hold a brand new ostrich chick and got what was called an ostrich neck massage as four ostriches aggressively pecked over her shoulders to get a taste of the bucket of food she was holding.  For lunch we of course all had ostrich!  It’s good, plus it’s low in cholesterol.

The next part or our trip was a visit to Cango Caves.  We were warned multiple times that this was going to include some very tight spaces that we needed to crawl through. I can honestly say I found this more intimidating than bungee jumping. It didn’t help that some of these underground areas were called “The Coffin” or “Devil’s Chimney”.  What got us off on the wrong foot though was a 30+ yard stretch called “Tunnel of Love” where the German guy in front of us got stuck temporarily.  The look of terror in in his eyes as he turned back to Jolene was enough to convince us to stay to the back of the group so we knew there was a way to escape back to daylight.  The story that Isaac had left us with before we started remained ever present in the back of our head was about an American woman who got stuck for 11 hours and had to be oiled up among other things to get her out!

That night we walked across from the Yamkela Guesthouse to Backpacker paradise for ostrich BBQ (Braai), drinks around the fire, and a pool tournament.  I definitely let Jolene and America down with my pool skills but we did cheer on the Aussies as they played against the Brits and Germans.  There was an unreal amount of trash talk “banta” going on.

Day 5 : OUDTSHOORN – ELEPHANT BUSH WALK - WILDLIFE RANCH – CAPE TOWN

At this point I had already lost track of what was next on our list but it turns out after breakfast we were going on an elephant bush walk with three elephants through a nearby reserve.  It was pretty unreal walking side by side with them down thin paths, feeding them, and getting a chance to quiz some of the rangers about what they do to care for and protect them.

The first part of our trip then came to an end as we trekked back across central South Africa on Route 62 to Cape Town with drop offs of the group that evening and the swapping of contact info to keep in touch.